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2008 Zebrafish Course Student Bios Erica Andersen, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI I am a graduate student in Mary Halloran’s lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying axon guidance in zebrafish. I was drawn to zebrafish work for my graduate studies because of its power as a vertebrate model organism for development and genetics. My current research focuses on the development of spinal cord sensory neurons, the Rohon-Beard neurons (RBs), and the molecular mechanisms underlying their axonal navigation. Leonard Anderson, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA I am a developmental vascular biologist on the faculty of Morehouse School of Medicine in the Cardiovascular Research Institute. My laboratory routinely utilizes microarray and other genomics strategies to elucidate novel transcription networks essential for vascular development. I have great interest in the Zebrafish model as a high-throughput in vivo model to determine if novel genes are required for vasculogenesis. Johann Bollmann, Dept of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University I am a postdoctoral fellow in Florian Engert's lab at Harvard University, where I study visual information processing in Xenopus using in vivo electrophysiology and multi-photon Ca2+ imaging. My research interest is to understand the activity-dependent development of sensory circuits in a genetically tractable system. I will start a research group at the Max-Planck-Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg later this year, where I will use the zebrafish model to investigate neural communication in the developing visual system. Joseph Buxbaum, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY Professor and Head, Laboratory of Molecular Psychiatry Mount Sinai School of Medicine I am a molecular geneticist, studying complex psychiatric and neuropsychiatric disorders. Recent findings implicate diverse genes in these disorders and it is becoming increasingly important to take advantage of simpler in vivo models, including zebrafish, to evaluate gene function. Sabina Domené, INGEBI-CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina I used zebrafish as an animal model during my graduate work at the NIH to develop in vivo functional assays for genes involved in Holoprosencephaly at the Muenke Lab in collaboration with the Feldman Lab. After obtaining my PhD from the University of Buenos Aires, I joined Dr. Rubinstein's Lab at the INGEBI-CONICET in Buenos Aires, Argentina as a postdoctoral fellow. My current project focuses on identifying enhancers in the zebrafish brain. Anja Hanisch, Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, London, England I am a postdoc in the vertebrate development lab of the Cancer Research UK London Research institute. I am interested in the quantitative dynamics of Notch signaling and its interplay with the Wnt pathway in the temporal control of somitogenesis. Our lab has formulated a mathematical model for how this process might work in zebrafish. In order to test and advance this model I will require an advanced set of zebrafish single cell manipulation and imaging techniques Roshan Jain, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA I recently started work as a postdoc in Michael Granato's lab at the University of Pennsylvania. I am interested in the development, assembly, and function of neural circuits governing behavior, and I'm using zebrafish motor behavior as a model system. My graduate work focused on spatial and temporal RNA regulation during Drosophila development. Alon Kahana, MD, PhD, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI I am an orbital and oculofacial plastic surgeon-scientist at the University of Michigan Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences (Kellogg Eye Center). My research interest is in the biology of the neural crest, particularly as it pertains to acquired orbital and congenital craniofacial disorders. Zebrafish is a particularly powerful model for studying the development of the neural crest. Long term, I would like to utilize adult neural crest stem cells therapeutically, and the orbit may be a source of such cells. Yvette Langdon, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA During the course of my PhD I became interested in early embryonic development with a focus on axis specification and patterning. As a recent addition to the lab of Dr. Mary Mullins at UPenn I am very excited to have the opportunity to identify mutations affecting maternal genes involved in axis specification and patterning. I am especially excited to undertake this project in zebrafish due to the availability of powerful genetic tools and resources. Melanie Lee, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Ithaca, NY I am a 3rd year graduate student in Computational Biology & Medicine at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. I am interested in understanding the roles of cellular and network mechanisms in temporal integration and look forward to using the zebrafish as a model organism to study temporal integration in the oculomotor system. Christina Lillesaar, Department of Zebrafish Neurogenetics, Institute of Developmental Genetics, Helmholtz Center Munich, Germany I am a post-doc in the laboratory of Dr. Laure Bally-Cuif in Munich, Germany. We use the zebrafish as a model to study control of neurogenesis and maintenance of progenitor pools in the midbrain-hindbrain region. I have a special interest in the development and function of the serotonergic neurons of the hindbrain and the role of serotonin in neurogenic processes and behaviour. Barbara Lom, Davidson College, Davidson, NC I teach and do research at a liberal arts college. My training is in Xenopus visual system development. Recently, several of my students have been using zebrafish very effectively to examine questions in developmental toxicology. I'm looking forward to learning more about using zebrafish for both teaching and research in neuroscience. Danette Nicolay, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH I am a postdoctoral research fellow at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. My research is interested in elucidating the roles of retinoic acid signaling in the development of oligodendrocytes, which are the myelinating cells of the central nervous system, in zebrafish. Claus Oxvig, University of Aarhus, Århus, Denmark I am a faculty member of the Department of Molecular Biology, University of Aarhus, Denmark. We study how specific and limited proteolysis regulates growth factor activity. My laboratory has a general interest in reproduction and embryonic development, but we have recently also become interested in such regulatory mechanisms in the brain. Arun Padmanabhan, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA I am a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania working in a laboratory that studies a human genetic disorder known as Type I Neurofibromatosis (NF1). We are working to develop a zebrafish model of this disease and hope to exploit it to address important questions in NF1 research that would be difficult or impossible to explore in presently available murine models of NF1. Alberto Pereda, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY I am a neuroscientist on the faculty of Albert Einstein College of Medicine. I investigate mechanisms of synaptic regulation at mixed, electrical and chemical, synapses in teleost Mauthner cells. I am particularly interested in investigating the properties and plasticity of gap junction-mediated electrical synapses. While my research has involved so far the use of adult goldfish I look forward to using zebrafish as a model organism to study the molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of these synapses. Fabienne Poulain, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT I am a post-doc in Chi-Bin Chien's lab at the University of Utah. I am particularly interested in how neuronal tracts are precisely guided toward their targets during development, and how proteoglycans regulate this complex process. My project focuses more specially on the roles of heparan sulfate proteoglycans in the guidance of retinotectal projections, and uses zebrafish as a model to study this process in vivo. Sabine Renninger, University of Zürich, Switzerland I am a graduate student in the Department of Neurobiology at the University of Zürich, Switzerland. Our lab is interested in the genetic control of visual system development and function. In particular, I use the cone-dominated retina of zebrafish as model system to study adaptation mechanisms adjusting the visual performance to changing light levels. Raul E. Rojas, National Institute of Child Health and Development, National Institute of Health, Washington, D.C. I am a post-doctoral fellow in the Section of Intracellular Protein Trafficking at the CMBP/NICHD/NIH. For the past few years I have been working on the characterization of the protein sorting machinery involved in retrograde transport of protein cargo from endosomes to the trans-Golgi network. A complex that has been linked to the trafficking of various cargoes including acid hydrolase receptors and metal transporters within this pathway, from yeast to humans, is retromer. Recently, retromer has also been linked to the trafficking of receptors that control the production of the morphogen Wnt. I would like to use zebrafish to explore more this interesting hypothesis and the putative role of retromer in the trafficking of other morphogen receptors during early stages of development. Sarah Rothschild, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA I am a graduate student in Dr. Robert Tombes' lab at Virginia Commonwealth University. We research the role of the type II calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CaMK-II) in cellular proliferation, motility, and polarity. My research is focused on identifying the role of CaMK-II during zebrafish development, where the seven CaMK-II genes are highly expressed in the central nervous system, retinal epithelium, heart, somites, and fins. Joan Ruderman, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA As a faculty member in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School, my lab has worked for many years on the molecular mechanisms that regulate progression through the cell division cycle. I am now turning the focus of my group to environmental endocrine disruptors (also known as hormonally active pollutants), compounds that adversely affect the ability of steroid hormones to regulate early embryonic development. Christopher Sansam, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA I am a postdoctoral fellow in the Koch Institute at MIT. I am interested in the DNA damage response. Currently, I use the zebrafish embryo to screen for novel genes required for cells to respond to damaged DNA. I look forward to using the zebrafish as a system for studying the roles of the DNA damage response in embryonic development and tissue homeostasis. |
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